The men, who were working on the anti-piracy ship MV Seaman Guard Ohio, have now been released from the Puzhal Central Prison in Chennai.

British consulate officials are working with the Indian authorities to bring Mr Dunn and five other ex-British soldiers, known as the Chennai Six, back to the UK.

Lisa Dunn is flying to India as her brother Nick Dunn is released from prison (Image: Newcastle Chronicle)

Mr Dunn’s sister, Lisa Dunn, flew from Newcastle Airport to India on Tuesday morning to be reunited with her brother.

She said: “It is absolutely amazing, fantastic. I didn’t think that it would happen so quick.

“He has been released now and he is with British officials who are organising his accommodation.

“Nick phoned on our way to the airport to say he was out. He sounded tense and anxious but probably because he has been there before.

“He knows that he won’t be safe until he has boarded that flight. It is a massive hurdle out the way and now I’m going to bring him home.”

The other soldiers who have been released are Billy Irving, from Argyll and Bute, John Armstrong, from Wigton , Cumbria, Nicholas Simpson, from Catterick, North Yorkshire, Ray Tindall, from Chester and Paul Towers, from Pocklington, East Yorkshire.

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In 2013, the Indian coastguard boarded the men’s vessel and arrested them for taking weapons into India’s territorial waters.

The charges were initially quashed when the men argued the weapons were lawfully held for anti-piracy purposes and their paperwork, issued by the UK Government, was in order.

Nick Dunn

But a lower court reinstated the prosecution and they were convicted in January last year and sentenced to five years jail.

After the men won their appeal, the Government said it would continue to offer the former British soldiers and their families consular assistance for as long as they needed it.